


Rivulet

by niawen



Category: Assassin's Creed, Dishonored
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-03
Updated: 2014-04-03
Packaged: 2018-01-18 01:50:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1410529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niawen/pseuds/niawen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gift fic for DjKaeru because she is super cool.  She asked for Edward interacting with the Outsider.  My inability to write cute shit rears its ugly head and the Outsider is inexcusably creepy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rivulet

Edward couldn't quite be assed to remember each and every man on his crew. He kept a lot of men, more than most other captains he knew- thirty two to man the guns, sixteen for the rigging, a cook, a medic, a cartographer, a navigator... the list went on. Men also came and went very often, killed or wounded in skirmishes, paid sailors whose contracts only lasted until the next port, young men not hardened enough for the cruelties of the sea and old men far too sick of it. Edward was well liked as a captain and his men respected him and he them, but he never felt bad when the names of his crewmen escaped him- even when the haze of drink wasn't addling him.

Therefore, he wasn't quite prepared for what he saw, late one night as he stumbled from his quarters to breathe some fresh air and keep from heaving all that expensive liquor back up. The rough waters they had cut through earlier in the day had calmed and the storm that had battered the hull and threatened the sails with its billowing had since died out. When Edward made it onto the deck, the black night sky was clear as glass- though the new moon meant that it was black as sin outside the Jackdaw's lantern light. He stumbled to the railing and leaned over it, watching the way his ship cut through the black water.

It was quite nearly hypnotic and it lulled Edward somewhat, his sodden brain fixating on the gentle lapping and small ripples lapping up the metal reinforcements. He was starting to feel better. When he finally stood up proper he frowned sharply. There was a young man standing ramrod straight further along the railing, staring out into the blackness as though there were something interesting. Edward did not recognize him. He was a handsome lad, with dark, symmetrical feature, if a little on the skinny side for a sailor. His clothing was well tailored and in one piece, not beaten and weathered by sea or spray. Edward frowned further still.

The young man turned to him and Edward quelled the sudden urge to jump in surprise. "Evening, sailor," Edward said with a stiff nod, his sharp eyes immediately taking note that the boy's dark eyes loomed in his pale face.

The young man smirked slightly, his hands clasped easily behind his back. "Captain."

Edward was unnerved, to say the least, his senses racing for no discernable reason. He nodded stiffly and turned, marching back and away from the young man and back to his warmly lit cabin.

***

Edward Kenway was not as superstitious as the other sailors he knew, who were quick to tell stories of every kind of monster they could dream up, but something about that young man, standing still as death on deck the the other night, unnerved him. He didn't mention it for days, though he kept an eye out on his crew as the moved about their duties. He did not see him again. When finally he felt that this was too odd for a rational explanation (as they had not made port in a week) he called Adewale into his cabin three nights later.

  
"Ade, there's a man on board I want you to tell me about."

Adewale immediately looked serious. "Some kind of wrongdoing, Edward?"

"No," he admitted, not wanting to bring undue suspicion on the lad but unwilling to admit that the look of him had made his skin shiver. "An unfamiliar face. I don't like stowaways."  
The quartermaster frowned, obviously expecting something else, something more important. "Aye, what's he look like?"

"Skinny thing, pale as death," Edward said seriously. "Dresses well for a sailor. Very odd. Had dark eyes, nearly black."

Adewale's frowned deepened further, the thin scar bisecting his lips pulling tightly against his flesh. "I've never seen a well dressed boy on this tub. You included, for all your closets full of silk and linen."

Edward scowled and gave a sarcastic laugh. "A right court fool you are. Shut up and just keep an eye out."

The other man agreed, however reluctantly, and Edward watched him leave with some semblance of comfort. Adewale was loyal and trustworthy... if anyone could find the strange young man it was him.

***

"I'm tellin' you, Edward, there's no such boy on board. You got so drunk you made shit up for your brain to get bent out of shape over."

"I wasn't seein' things, Ade!" Edward ground out over his tankard, feeling utterly foul tempered.

"Edward..."

The tankard hit the table with a heavy clatter and the stale dregs of rum at the bottom scattered across the lacquered surface. "I wasn't! Knock it off!"

Adewale shrugged his huge shoulders, trying and not quite succeeding at looking understanding. "Look, Edward, what you did or didn't see is irrelevant. There's no such sailor on this ship. "I know the men... None of them fit that description."

"Just keep an eye out, would you?" Edward huffed, glowing moodily.

Adewale frowned again, starting to look exasperated. "Kenway..."

Edward looked up sharply and growled angrily. "Just do it, Ade," he snapped. "Please. I'll sleep easier at night knowing I can trust in another pair of eyes and a sober brain."

The other man shrugged, looking a little exasperated. “Aye, I’ll keep an eye out. But lay off the drink for a while, the men’d lose respect for you if you let this get out.”

Edward was too angry to say anything after that quip, annoyed at Adewale for his ability to point out how stupid Edward already thought he sounded.

***  
Shit was definitely not right, Adewale’s sober tone and rationalization be damned.

Edward stood gripping the rail along the aft deck, staring at the wake when he felt the presence of another. The hair on his nape stood on end and he didn’t have the excuse of drink to blame. He straightened out slowly and looked to his right, not as surprised as he ought to have been to find that deathly pale young man standing ramrod straight next to him. "You little blighter," Edward growled as he turned to face the young man, frowning in disapproval his unfussed demeanor. "I ought to toss you overboard for stowin' away on my tub."

Edward felt foolish indeed for getting so spooked by the young man - even if he stood with an unnatural stiffness and moved like a phantom and his eyes were black as the depths below the hull. "Not many have the senses to pin me down," came the man's reply. His speech sounded well practiced, his enunciation sharp and somehow foreign sounding, only compounding Edward's confusion and discomfort. "Impressive as ever, captain."

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean? You could have caused a mutiny. What's your sob story then, eh? To keep me from pitching you into the sea?" Edward fired back immediately.  
"My, you are spirited," he replied silkily. "You are welcome to try, captain, but you will be displeased with the results."

Edward's temper, by this point already paper thin, whore dangerously frayed. "Listen to me, you smarmy little gobshite-" he did not like being spoken to like that - by some arrogant youth tucked away in his ship.

A flash of lightening interrupted him, however, and the peal of thunder that followed was deafening. Edward tried to conceal his startled jerk but the smirk on the man's face made him unsure if he'd accomplished it.

"I am not a stowaway," the man said before Edward could continue. "I am not leeching your hardwon resources or interested in your paltry human wealth."

Edward felt that his misgivings were very justified and his wrist tensed as the man (if he indeed was only flesh and bone) turned towards him and leaned in even closer. Edward knew he would need to wait for the him to lean in just a little further in order to maximize that first strike without leaving himself open to possibly fatal retaliation. "Not a stowaway?" Edward repeated with sarcastic incredulity. "Then how are you staying clothed and fed on free passage to the next port, eh?"

He leaned in, breathing icy cold breath over Edward's angry, pale face and his black eyes looked even blacker in the inky night. "Go ahead and use that little blade," the thing taunted in a low hiss. "I think you would be more inclined to belive it that my words."

Edward hesitated for just a second but something jerked his arm up and forward like a piston, the hidden blade springing from the slot without his conscious direction. Confusion swept over him so totally in that instant he reeled- he hadn't meant to attack... he hadn't done that on his own volition. For one batshit crazy second he wondered if he was drunk and just didn't remember hitting the bottle.

The blade sunk into the man's torso, all the way to his knuckles. He realized the body beneath his flesh and under his well tailored clothes was stone cold and a shiver of revulsion shot up his spine. When he could control himself again, he yanked the blade back and recoiled.

The young man was smiling, his teeth sharp and white in the low lamplight and the wound in his side gushed blood. Edward could only stare, his cognition grinding to a halt. The wetness on his knuckles was cold and thin and he stared like a fool at the liquid rushing out of the laceration... not blood, not thick and red and hot, but sea water. Ice cold and briny and dark.

  
"What the hell-!?"

"I watch. From outside your little sphere of sense. I am not of the same mud you crawled out of, but i know how difficult that is for you mortals to grasp." The thing came closer and Edward backed away nervously, still holding the blade out as threateningly as he could manage, though the Assassin was becoming more certain by the second that he was insignificantly threatening to whatever the hell was staring him down on the deck of his own ship. "You are fascinating enough to hold my amusement for a time and i moved in for a closer look."

  
Edward was suddenly furious and his fury muted his good sense. "Amusing, am i?" he snarled violently, sheathing his hidden blade and drawing his swords, gritting his teeth and feeling more like a cornered animal than he'd ever experienced.

"What do you expect to accomplish? I already demonstrated that weapons are pointless," he said, his tone infuriatingly calm to match Edward's agitation.

"Fuck you-" he began, but something heavy and solid and somehow completely invisible smacked hard against him and both blades went flying, skittering across the deck just as rain began to fall. "What the hell are you?" Edward demanded loudly and with an icy lividity, his sharp eyes trailing the blades for just an instant before they snapped to the black sockets of the man in front of him.

"I am old enough to have many names, but your men and their superstitions call me The Outsider. Though that answers what and not who." The Outsider said, smirking. "I am force and fury, do not let this unimpressive form fool you, captain."

Edward felt something cold wrap around his arms and yank him in, like a kraken, with slimy, undulating tentacles that he could not see. "Get the hell off of me and get the hell off my ship!" he snarled, yanking back uselessly on whatever the hell had ahold of him.

"Ah, I was right in baiting you a little. This is quite amusing," he leered, dragging the human in even closer. "You're a strange thing, mortal. And though I can smell the fear radiating off you, you seem to be made of sterner stuff than what I usually see. Sailors, for all the hardships they brave, are some of the most easily frightened of your whole species. And you've been telling the females they're weak for centuries. Truly humorous."

Though his interaction with the Conservatory and the Pieces of Eden and Those Who Came Before had made Eward somewhat more prone to believing the radical and the strange, the invisible coils wrapped tightly around his wrists were forcing him to confront the idea that whatever the hell he was talking to really wasn't of the mundane. "You've had... You've had your laugh then, you devil, what else are you after!?"

"Manners, captain. I was simply curious and mean you no harm- though if you keep squirming like that you could hurt yourself."

Edward was still furious and more afraid of the thing before him than he cared to admit but he stilled eventually, glowering arrogantly back with as much cold bravado as he could muster. "I don't quite appreciate your tone, sailor," he bit back, unable to quell the urge to argue.

"As you don't appreciate being tugged about. I must say... Your forebearers were not quite so belligerent." The Outsider went on blihely.

Edward paused, his eyebrows furrowing in consternation. "My.... what?"

The deity waved a careless hand. "Granted, they all tried the blade first but most of them were quite reasonable once their stupid human senses caught up."

"You've met my..."

The Outsider's smirk grew into something close to a leer. "Are you addled, captain? Your forebearers.. your ancestors. Certainly you did not think your penchant for high places and preference for dexterity over brute strength began with you? You come from a long line of climbing animals. The ones I have met carried themselves with more dignity though, enough so that their scurrying and clambering looked nearly graceful. Quite unlike your drunken scuttling."

Edward bristled at the insult- demon or no, this thing's tone was quite too much. "What would I care about them, they are dead and gone and will not affect my life."

The Outsider burst out laughing at this, the sound cold and unnatural, devoid of mirth. "Oh you poor thing. You have no idea."

The coils around Edwards wrists loosened and his braced weight made him stumble backwards a few paces.

"Very well, I will leave you be for now. Just know that I am watching, captain. And I will wish to speak with you again if you do anything particularly interesting."  
Another flash of lightning illuminated the things ghastly features- and those black eyes were like pits into the void itself. When darkness fell again, it was gone, and Edward was left panting, alone, on the deck.


End file.
